I had food allergy testing done because I started having sores in my mouth. Tests came back that I am allergic to a number of things - 3+ on most - shellfish, oats, almonds, strawberries, oranges, nutmeg, cauilflower, mushrooms and of all things - celery! The allergy doctor says most allergies cause stomach problems headaches etc, not rashes or sores unless it is a nut allergy. Anyway - I know that I had been eating lots of oatmeal when the weather was cold and was in hopes that it would lower my cholestrol. Ha - turns out the stomach issues I was having was probably due to the oats! I avoid most of the things now - will eat a little crab once in a while and if the celery is in something else I eat it. I do avoid the almonds and the oats which seemed to be the worst. I think I am also allergic to something that is found in the seasoning I use on my Standing rib Roast. It is called Everglade Seasoning and makes the best roast. Anyway, I had a severe reaction - swelling eyes twice after eating meat I had cooked with it. First time I ended up in the hospital for three days - made the mistake of saying that it started with a shortness of breath. Several tests later I learned that I have a slight narrowing in a small place in one artery but no biggie. They were not worried about the eye swelling - but it took a week to go away even with heavy doses of Benadryl, Claratin and Prednisone. Happened a second time to a much lesser degree - I got out the Benadryl and allergy pills immediately and got it under control. I still carry my Epipen and Bendaryl with me wherever I go, though. Turns out the mouth sores are probably from a Galvanic Reaction to the amount of metal I have in my mouth from fillings and crowns. Took several months to run its coarse but will crop up from time to time. Keeping myself hydrated helps as does a good Vitamin B. Some thought it was called Geographical Mouth, which the same things are suggested for it. One interesting fact is that the mouth issue, eye swelling issue and the heart issue all occured about the same time. Bloodwork during this time also showed my potassium level was low. Since then I take a Potassium tablet every day.

MY son has had to take some awful medications in his life, and what I found that was most effective, was to quit using the local grocery store pharmacies, and to be sure you're using an actual compounding pharmacy. (Even Walmart isn't compounding very complex meds). We have had meds made into creams to rub on and absorb verses swallowing (VERY EFFECTIVE!) and we've had many compounded into different versions to get them to work. I found the most effective flavoring for small babies was marshmellow, which is so cloying it tends to knock out some of the bitterness. Not all pharmacies have this flavor though (I used to carry it to the pharmacy we used out of state as well as the recipe for compounding with it). Many meds are made with mint flavor, which babies hate. It's pretty standard because, like marshmellow, it is strong enough to block some bitter flavors. When my pharmacist and I started in our relationship :) She really made an effort to try to find ways to work with us and get the meds down the baby. A syringe (not with a needle, but a blunt point that you can get at a pharmacy) is helpful in getting small amounts of the meds in at a time. We did have some compounded at extra stregnth just because it's easier to give less than more. This also isn't possible with everything, but it's a good worst case scenario if necessary. So is your pharmacy really compounding? Or are they pouring from a bottle? Compounding is more expensive, but worth in in the case of necessary meds and small babies. By the way, for the poster who was upset that the diarreah lasted a month...my son had it for over a year without diagnosis. Sometimes they can't get to an answer in a day or two unfortunately.

I'm still sick & nauseated from the bad combo last night (sunflower seeds & cherry juice & lemonade), Men's Health has an excellent article on how certain medications mixed with certain food/drink can have a deadly effect & toxic: http://www.menshealth.com/health/ 1. Limes and cough medicine. You may have heard not to drink grapefruit juice with some prescriptions, including cholesterol-lowering statins. But limes, pomelos, and Seville oranges—although not the more-common navel and Valencia varieties—also may block an enzyme that breaks down statins and other drugs, including the cough suppressant dextromethorphan ... this includes hallucinations and sleepiness; in statins, you may sustain severe muscle damage. 2. Dairy products and antibiotics. Some antibiotics, including Cipro, bind to calcium, iron, and other minerals in milk-based foods. “This prevents the absorption of the antibiotics, ultimately decreasing their ability to fight infections,” Gullickson says. When you get a new prescription for acne or an infection, ask if the drug falls into a class known as tetracyclines or flouroquinolones. If so, avoid milk, yogurt, and cheese 2 hours before and after taking the pills. 3. Smoked meats and antidepressants. Check the label on your happy pills. If they belong to a class called monoamine oxidase inhibitors or MAOIs—brand names Marplan, Nardil, Emsam, or Parnate—combining them with foods rich in the amino acid tyramine can cause life-threatening spikes in blood pressure, says Gullickson. Unfortunately, the list of no-nos includes not only summer sausage and smoked salmon, but also red wine, sauerkraut, hot dogs, aged cheeses, soy sauce, and draft or home-brewed beer. 4. Chocolate and Ritalin. Besides caffeine, chocolate also contains a stimulant called theobromine, says Tom Wheeler, Pharm.D., B.C.P.S., director of pharmacy and pulmonary services at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. (It’s the reason chocolate harms dogs—canine bodies can’t break it down.) Combining all these stimulants in humans can potentially lead to erratic behavior and seizures. 5. Apple juice and allergy meds. Nix the nectar from apples, oranges, and grapefruits if you take Allegra (fexofenadine) for hay fever—at least within 4 hours of swallowing the pill, Gullickson advises. These juices inhibit a peptide that transports the drug from your gut to your bloodstream. The resulting lack of absorption makes Allegra up to 70 percent less effective at stopping your sniffling and sneezing, Wheeler says. Other medications also travel with the help of the same peptide; lay off these juices while taking the antibiotics Cipro or Levaquin, the thyroid medication Synthroid, or the allergy and asthma treatment Singulair, Gullickson says. 6. Cinnamon and warfarin. People taking the blood-thinning medication warfarin—prescribed to prevent or treat clots—have long been warned to keep their intake of vitamin K steady, says Wolfe. This means you shouldn’t change your weekly intake of foods like leafy greens or broccoli; because vitamin K plays a key role in clotting, doing so could affect the thickness of your blood. But there’s another risk. Cassia cinnamon, the kind on most American grocery-store shelves, contains high levels of a compound called coumarin that can thin blood and potentially cause liver damage, says Eric Newman, M.D 7. Alcohol and acetaminophen. Resist the urge to wash down your Tylenol with a cold one—your body uses the same enzyme to break down the two substances. http://www.menshealth.com/health/

Got a really bad reaction to flu-shot taken on Dec. 19 .. started being dizzy & throw up & fever on Dec. 29. The few strains of virus in flu-shot inflamed my middle ear. Neighbor & nurse-daughter also complained about tingling of ears after flu-shot. Regarding the flu that I got from that blasted flu-shot: I went to the PA yesterday and he found my ears are VERY blocked. No one, including my 3 medical doctor siblings ever link vertigo to blocked Eustachian tubes. I learned that from the searching in Houzz, which a woman solved her vertigo problem by flushing her ear with hydrogen peroxide. I re-post what I posted in Health Forum today: "Bonide is the most popular vertigo medication, but there's side-effects. Best to treat the problem: blocked tubes which mess up equilibrium. I never have vertigo before, until I got my flu-shot from Sam's club Dec. 19 ... My right ear bled, then I got vertigo for one month. The right ear is the hardest to free from blockage: 3 flush with hydrogen peroxide to clean out the blood, and 3 flush of vinegar/alcohol to remove earwax. I used a glass dropper, filled with hydrogen peroxide and flush both ears. One ear popped, vertigo is completely gone on that side. The other ear is still jammed up, so I used 1/2 alcohol and 1/2 vinegar (alcohol to evaporates quickly and vinegar to dissolve solidified ear-wax, or dried blood). My husband has lots of wax build-up in his ears .. it got so bad that he got sick from it: lost his appetite, feeling tired & lethargic. He went to the doc. and the doc. flushed out the wax. After that my husband could hear better & regain his appetite & no more tiredness !! You can tell when your ears are blocked (WebMD): , Swelling from a cold, allergies, or a sinus infection can keep the eustachian tubes from opening. This leads to pressure changes. Fluid may collect in the middle ear. The pressure and fluid can cause pain. Ears that hurt and feel full, or feel watery. Ringing or popping noises in your ears. Hearing problems. Feeling dizzy. " WebMD has a fantastic exercise to clear-out the Eustachian tubes, I tried it, and it WORKED: " You may be able to open the blocked tubes with a simple exercise. Close your mouth, hold your nose, and gently blow as if you are blowing your nose. Yawning and chewing gum also may help. You may hear or feel a "pop" when the tubes open to make the pressure equal between the inside and outside of your ears."